Most of us have certain dates that we dread, either for personal or cultural reasons. Many westerners worry about bad luck on Friday the 13th, and Chinese avoid celebrations on unlucky days like the Qing Ming and winter solstice festivals. Those dates are common to everyone, though many of us also have dates we dread for our own individual reasons.
For me my most dreaded date came just this past week, on May 5 to be exact, which was when my official Shanghai residence permit was set to expire. Expiration of official documents is always a hassle, as it means you have to go to government offices or fill out burdensome online forms to apply for new ones. In China the situation is worse, since the government requires most foreigners to get numerous permits and other official forms to legally live and work in the country. Read Full Post…
This week I wanted to take a look at the more serious issue of guns, which have made several appearances in the headlines these last few days. The series of stories on the topic began with the high-profile destruction of hundreds of confiscated real and fake guns, highlighting the city’s efforts to rid Shanghai of these weapons that are both unnecessary and dangerous in the hands of ordinary citizens. Days later, the city also detailed new plans to arm hundreds of police officers with guns. Read Full Post…
A new report about a brawl on Metro Line 3 is casting a spotlight on the ongoing drama involving subway beggars, featuring a colorful but also unruly cast of men, women, children and even babies who spend their days pandering for money beneath the streets of Shanghai. I have some thoughts about how to tackle the problem, though there really are no quick and easy answers. Such subway beggars are far fewer in the US cities, and don’t exist at all in other major Asian cities like Hong Kong, Taipei and Singapore. Read Full Post…
Shanghai’s signature Oriental Pearl Tower takes center stage in this week’s Street View, following a much-needed cleaning for the original high-rise in city’s fast-evolving Lujiazui financial district. This concrete and purple glass tower has been the source of controversy since its construction in the early 1990s, winning praise from some for its futuristic look and scorn from others who called it an urban eyesore. Read Full Post…
A recent case involving some bathhouse bandits seemed like a good excuse to look at the colorful history of public showers in China over the last half century. Such public bathhouses were a fixture of everyday life for years in a densely populated city like Shanghai, where many homes lacked running water.
In addition to their more functional role as places to wash, these bathhouses were traditionally an important place to socialize, where people could chat with friends and neighbors and catch up on all the latest news and gossip while soaking in a hot tub. Much of that glamour has been lost these last few decades in Shanghai’s current generation of grungy bathhouses, which themselves are rapidly drying up. Read Full Post…
My first reaction to a report about Shanghai’s latest business scandal was one of disgust, as I read about scoundrels who use homemade radio devices to block mobile signals and send thousands of cellular spam messages. Anyone who owns a cellphone is well aware of the spam problem, receiving dozens or even hundreds of such unwanted text messages each month offering everything from restaurant discounts to rip-off investment schemes. Read Full Post…
It may sound like a small and unimportant detail, but taxi cabs form one of the first and strongest impressions that people get when they travel to other cities. Cabs are equally significant for local residents, constituting part of the fabric of everyday life for many urban dwellers in their hometowns.
That’s why I was excited to read that after years of using the boxy and flimsy looking Volkswagen Santana for its taxi fleet, Shanghai was preparing to choose a replacement for the thousands of cabs that ply the city’s streets. According to the latest reports, Volkswagen’s small but much sportier Lavida is the prime candidate to replace Santanas, which have recently ceased production. Read Full Post…
Shanghai eatery gets diners hooked with poppy seeds
I thought I’d read about every kind of food safety scandal imaginable until I saw a new report on an eatery here in Shanghai that found a creative way to encourage customer loyalty for its crayfish dishes. I had to smile to myself as I read the report, and even had to slightly admire this restaurant for its creative, albeit illegal, approach to building up repeat business.
At a broader level, this “Case of the cagey crayfish shop” shines a spotlight on a more widespread phenomenon in China that amuses both me and many of my western friends. Put simply, we marvel at the inability of Chinese entrepreneurs to differentiate themselves from their rivals, with the result that many shops often look identical to one another and give little reason for customer loyalty. Read Full Post…
This week’s Street View zeroes in on Shanghai’s growing love for plastic, which has fueled an explosion of membership, gift, credit and debit cards issued by just about anyone in the retail sector. This strange love of plastic has led government officials in Pudong to take the much-needed step of trying to regulate an unruly group of merchants, some of whom sell cards worth thousands of yuan to consumers and then suddenly close up shop and disappear with the money. Read Full Post…
